Terrence Higgins Trust is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee which is governed by a board comprised of up to 15 Trustees. The board has overall responsibility for the work of the organisation, and has the following role:
- To oversee the charity’s governance.
- To establish strategy.
- To performance manage the achievement of the strategy.
- To contribute to the leadership of the charity.
Our current trustees are:
- Jonathan McShane (Chair)
- Dr Bilal Ali
- Dr Carla Barrett
- Antonia Belcher
- Asher Craig
- Adam Crampsie
- Dr Claire Dewsnap
- Melanie Knight
- Gordon Mundie
- Abayomi Olusunle
- Ben Roberts
The board delegates to the Chief Executive who is supported by a team of directors. This enables the charity to draw on both trustee and officer skills and knowledge to maximise the quality of governance and leadership provided to the organisation.
Trustees can serve up to three terms of office (of three years each). Approximately half will be filled through election and the remainder by appointment by the board.
The board meets formally four times a year (approximately quarterly) and also holds two planning sessions – a one day event usually in January/February and a two day residential usually in July.
The board has a Chair and Deputy Chair (currently vacant) and is supported in its work by two principal board committees:
- Finance, Audit and Risk Committee.
- Quality, Governance and Wellbeing Committee.
These committees provide an opportunity to engage in more detailed scrutiny and discussion of the charity’s work than would otherwise be possible in an ordinary board meeting.
The role of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee is to maintain an overview of the financial health and corporate performance of the organisation, its controls assurance mechanisms, and of its compliance with statutory requirements.
The role of the Quality, Governance and Wellbeing Committee is to support the board to discharge its organisational and front line service governance responsibilities, review staff wellbeing and delivery of quality services.
Both of these committees is chaired by a trustee and comprises a small number of trustees and officers.
The board each year reviews and adopts a Code of Corporate Governance Action Plan, which sets out the ways in which the board intends to work.
The board leads on development of the charity strategy and ensures that it fulfils its governance duties by producing an annual trustee report.
Find out more about our corporate strategy
While it is important that trustees understand and meet their fiduciary duty, we also want trustees to enjoy their experience, to feel they are making a positive difference to the charities’ key service users and staff, and by the end of their period as a trustee feel that the whole experience has been worth it.
